How do you restore from a 'Previous System' backup?

[Spanky Deluxe]

Hi, my OS X installation has messed up and I want to roll back to the last install because it always ran fine there (I think it was 10.2). I've got 10.3 right now. I've got 9.2.2 installed and in there I can see the 'Previous Systems' folder and it has a folder called 'Previous System 1' which I'm guessing is my previous 10.2 install. I want to backup all of my stuff before I go and buy myself a copy of Tiger but my external dvd writer doesn't work in OS 9, hence why I want to get 10.2 back.

How do I do this?


Cheers,

Phil

 

[ITASOR]

I think you do something with naming the one that's not working something else and then changing the Previous one to "System" or whatever it's normally supposed to be called. That's how I did it. I would check that I'm correct before trying it though, as I'm not 100% sure that's how it works still.

 

[Eidorian]

I believe you go to System Preferences and click on Startup Disk. Once you're in Startup Disk just pick which system folder you want to use when you reboot. I think it also askes you if you want to reboot from there.

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

Hmmm... I did that but when I go to choose the Startup Disk, the system folders that appear are the OS 9 one and the broken 10.3 one wherever I put it. It seems to find the damned thing everywhere instead of the 10.2 one!!

 

[mkrishnan]

I don't think you can do that. I was trying to understand Archive and Install when I upgraded to Tiger, and there was a KB article that specifically said that this folder could not be blessed or re-blessed. But I can't find that article now....

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

I don't think you can do that. I was trying to understand Archive and Install when I upgraded to Tiger, and there was a KB article that specifically said that this folder could not be blessed or re-blessed. But I can't find that article now....

Hmmm... if that was the case then I don't really see what the point of the feature was in the first place!!

 

[Applespider]

The previous system created during an Archive & Install is not a backup of your system and you can't just go back to it. It's not a bootable clone that you can use to start up from - which is why it's not appearing as a boot up disk

It's there so that you can copy over any files that might not have transferred and check any preferences/settings. It's also very useful if you choose not to 'keep' your settings/apps since that's where they'll end up.

What's so wrong with your 10.3 installation that means you can't save your Home folder from it? Can we help on that front?

You could try booting from your Panther (10.3) CD if it's the system files on the HD that are messed up.

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

My 10.3 install hangs on start up these days. Its only a G3 laptop and the trackpad doesn't work and I think the hard disk has errors so I'm beginning to think I might just sod it and order myself a new ibook and sell this one on ebay as faulty. It was dropped a while ago so its probably on its last legs. Faulty 'books seem to go for a pretty penny on ebay anyway.

It hasn't got airport and I really want that now since using my Dell 8600 and it needs more memory, to upgrade to 512MB, get an old slow airport card, get a bluetooth dongle, replace the hd and learn how to solder in tight places to fix the touchpad not to mention buying tiger seems a bit of waste of money on an old G3 'book. That stuff'll cost about £200 to do and get. I could sell the thing on ebay for probably around £150... 150+200=not very far off the educational price of a brand new ibook...

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

Just found out that Apple just recommends to Archive and Install over the same major release of Mac OS X, in this article I found while searching a bit on the issue, Mac OS X: How to reinstall a prior version, and I was one of many that went with an A&I when upgrading from Panther to Tiger...

I guess it's back to clean installing whenever Leopard is here...

Edit: More interesting articles: How to get files from a previous home directory after Archive and Install (Mac OS X) and Mac OS X: About the Archive and Install feature

 

[Applespider]

Just found out that Apple just recommends to Archive and Install over the same major release of Mac OS X, in this article I found while searching a bit on the issue

I read that as being that you shouldn't downgrade to a previous major version of OS X. So you shouldn't do an A&I on a Tiger machine to get it back to Panther.

But since Apple list the A&I as one of the ways to upgrade specifically, I guess it's OK to upgrade using that route.